Professor Jeong Jong-hyu presents his Korean translation of Pope Benedict XVI’s book “Truth and Tolerance — Christian Belief and World Religions” at the Castel Gandolfo, Italy, in September 2009. / Korea Times file

By Do Je-hae

Professor Jeong Jong-hyu, who has previously published five Korean translations of Pope Benedict XVI, has recently released Korean version of the Catholic leader's latest publication, "Light of the World."

Taken from a recent week-long series of interviews with veteran journalist Peter Seewald, this book covers the Pope's direct views on wide-ranging and controversial issues revolving his faith, including the clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and dialogue with Islam.

Seewald is a veteran German journalist who has written other international best sellers on the work and life of Pope Benedict XVI.
Jeong, 62, a law professor at Chonnam National University Law School, first started to translate the Pope's books in 1994.

“When I first translated `The Ratzinger Report' in 1994, the book was barely known outside the Catholic community. As I continuously worked on more of the pope's books, people began to understand him better, and the books became a kind of warning (among Catholics). It brought faith that the church still had the ability to reform amid self-contradiction,” Jeong said in a previous interview with The Korea Times.

Jeong was a researcher in Germany when he started reading ``The Ratzinger Report,'' a book coauthored by the pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and Italian journalist Vittorio Messori.

Pope Benedict XVI is the spiritual leader of over one billion Catholics, and a highly regarded theologian and the author of dozens of best-selling spiritual and theological books, including “Jesus of Nazareth,” “Introduction to Christianity,” and “Spirit of the Liturgy.”